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Papa Hari School of the Obvious

Filed under: Humour and Nonsense by Hari
Posted on Tue, May 27, 2008 at 09:38 IST (last updated: Mon, May 18, 2009 @ 16:57 IST)

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Papa Hari News Service

Several months after the launch of the highly successful Papa Hari School of Politics, the Papa Hari Foundation has announced a new School of the Obvious for teaching students about how to communicate the obvious. A spokesman of the Papa Hari Foundation announced that the school would teach students who join the course after paying the admission fees.

"The school of the obvious is a unique concept and will prepare the next generation of jaded television anchors, professional politicians, second-rate celebrities in morning breakfast shows, boring sports commentators and team coaches, obscure government spokespersons, reality television show judges, BBC and CNN Iraq war reporters, PR managers, overpaid newspaper editorial writers and brand managers in low-budget advertising agencies... among others," said the spokesman reading out from the press release.

"It's obvious that such a school would be unique in the annals of history," he continued and mentioned that the Papa Hari Foundation hoped that such a concept would be successful. "We have started this school in the hope that the concept will be a huge success. Students who study at the Papa Hari School of the Obvious will be more prepared in communicating the obvious. We will hire the best teachers and try to provide the best possible education to those who study here."

Stating that the school would charge admission fees from its students, the Papa Hari spokesman claimed that the funds would go towards improving the school and paying the costs of running it. "Students who graduate from the Papa Hari School of the Obvious would get a degree - the Master of the Obvious. Isn't that obvious?" continued the spokesman chuckling at his own insipid humour.

Several press reporters were curious about the nature of the school. "The school will consist of teachers who teach and students who learn. Obviously we will provide the buildings and the infrastructure necessary for the purposes of conducting an educational course," said the spokesman by way of explanation, "The classes will be interactive and dynamic and hopefully everybody comes away enriched by the experience. We guarantee placement for each and every student who passes out of this institute with flying colours. On the other hand, we cannot make any guarantees for students who don't pass out of this institute or who just manage to scrape through the course. Everything depends on the individual's aptitude for learning. Each individual's learning capacity is different."

When approached, several critics were ruthless in criticizing the concept as useless.

"We already have enough people in the world who state the obvious. Why do we need more?" asked a retired socialite (not to be confused with socialist), "It gets boring when people keep stating the obvious. There's nothing more boring that stating something that's boring several times, isn't it? After all, life is a lot more than what is obvious, but most people are so caught up in the obvious that it becomes obvious that they have no vision or imagination. If people had a bit more imagination, they wouldn't state the obvious so many times, would they? On the other hand, I should think that they would actually try and think of something that's not so obvious. But they cannot."

Other critics dismissed the concept as an obvious attempt at pathetic humour. But a few were rather more cautious. "It's either an attempt at humour and sarcasm or it's a genuine concept, but I'm not sure whether it's successful or not either way. It depends entirely on your point of view," said a popular news show host who always refuses to commit himself to any point of view as can be seen from his statement.

When the Papa Hari Foundation was confronted with the criticism, the spokesman brushed it aside. "We know what we're about and we don't need any critics to tell us what we're about." When asked whether he accepted that this was an obvious attempt at humour and sarcasm, he replied that he didn't have any comments on the issue as it was a matter for the public to judge. "We're very clear in our goals and vision," he added. As an afterthought, he mentioned, "It's obvious that the word 'obvious' has been overused by many people. I promise you that students who pass out of this course will be so obvious about being obvious that it would no longer be necessary to use the word 'obvious' while stating the obvious."

The Papa Hari School of the Obvious will be a school which will be funded by the Papa Hari Foundation.

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9 comment(s)

  1. socialite != socialist... heheheh

    Comment by (visitor) on Tue, May 27, 2008 @ 18:10 IST #
  2. Titanium, that should be fairly obvious. :))

    Obviously nobody else has posted a comment on this article other than you so far.

    Comment by hari (blog owner) on Wed, May 28, 2008 @ 09:02 IST #
  3. I so want to sign up. Apparently, my obvious obviously differs from other people's obvious.

    Comment by tim (visitor) on Fri, May 30, 2008 @ 04:29 IST #
  4. Hey hari,
    Was waiting for your posting on IPL..
    have any idea to write something?

    Comment by Logesh TamilSelvan (visitor) on Sat, May 31, 2008 @ 00:10 IST #
  5. Tim, yes, yes. Obvious is as obvious as it gets.

    Logesh, I would write, but seriously I have nothing much to say about IPL. I'll probably write some kind of review on it.

    Comment by hari (blog owner) on Mon, Jun 2, 2008 @ 10:24 IST #
  6. Okay, so who's the obvious teacher at this school?

    It isn't me, obviously.

    Comment by RT Cunningham (visitor) on Thu, Jun 5, 2008 @ 11:28 IST #
  7. RT, the teacher is obvious. Papa Hari of course. :>>

    Comment by hari (blog owner) on Thu, Jun 5, 2008 @ 20:27 IST #
  8. I think maybe I need to take this course. Somehow the point of this entire post has eluded me, yet I feel that it ought to be straightforward. I just can't quite seem to grasp it.

    Comment by Ernie (visitor) on Sat, Jun 7, 2008 @ 18:59 IST #
  9. Ernie, consider yourself signed up. Now we'll talk about the fees. :>

    Comment by hari (blog owner) on Sun, Jun 8, 2008 @ 09:04 IST #

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